Cronal
Atha Prime, supposedly born as Perek and better known as Cronal and Snoke, was a male Human/Arkanian Hybrid genetics master and ruler of the dark worlds who served the Prophets of the Dark Side. Born on Rhand some one hundred years before the Battle of Yavin, Perek's involvment with the Dark Side started at an early age as he was taken as a member of the Sorcerers of Rhand. Eventually, the man would become skilled in bioengineering and the leader of the Arkanian Dominion. An arbiter of the Second Clone War, Prime was instrumental in orchestrating Cosimo Palpatine I's rise to the position of Galactic Emperor. He also mentored a young Darth Vader and became known by his code name Blackhole, the mysterious Director of Imperial Intelligence. He abandoned himself to his meditations in the dark side, becoming withdrawn, physically frail, and paranoid. Considered Palpatine's "monster-maker," Cronal was responsible for the creation of several Sithspawn and other devices of Sith alchemy. As time passed, Cronal withdrew further, growing steadily more mad as the dark side consumed him. After being exiled to the fringes of the galaxy by Cosimo Palpatine II during the Galactic Civil War, Lord Cronal returned as a warlord, and took the name of Shadowspawn. With a cadre of the Emperor's Royal Guards, his Clone Warriors and a legion of shadow stormtroopers at his disposal, Shadowspawn laid waste to worlds of the New Republic. He and his splinter Imperial faction blazed a path of death and destruction, committing acts of piracy, terrorism, and mass slaughter. Biography Early life In the time of the Empire, rumors abounded regarding Blackhole's origins. Some believed he was once a senatorial page taken under Cosimo Palpatine I's wing, while other rumors asserted that he was an assistant at the Jedi Archives on Coruscant who was ultimately seduced by the dark side of the Force. Palpatine's court knew him as a Prophet of the Dark Side, a dark side sect based out of Dromund Kaas. However, as it turned out, his involvement with matters dark and arcane went even deeper. Lord Cronal was, in fact, originally a member of the Sorcerers of Rhand, another dark-side cult based in the Nihil Retreat which was set in the Perann Nebula located in the Unknown Regions. The Sorcerers took him from his mother shortly after he was born and raised him as one of their members. Among the abilities they taught him was the power of Darksight. It was his use of Darksight which ultimately led him to leave the Sorcerers and the Unknown Regions and go to Dromund Kaas where he joined the Prophets of the Dark Side, and eventually the Order of the Canted Circle. Second Clone War and aftermath A genetics master, Cronal eventually assumed the name Atha Prime and became a high-ranking member within the Arkanian Dominion. Using his position of power for the benefit of the Order of the Canted Circle's Grand Plan, Prime was one of the architects of the Second Clone War, a pan-galactic conflict that raged from 35 BBY to 31 BBY and ended with the collapse of the Alliance of Independent Systems and the subsequent rise of Cosimo Palpatine I to the position of Galactic Emperor. During those wars, Prime attacked the mountainous world of Skye, committing terrorist acts that were genetic in nature. During this time he fathered a daughter, Sariss, though she remained unaware of her parentage. As Cronal and the other Prophets heaped abuses on her, Sariss suspected one of them was her father, but never knew which. As a Prophet, Cronal also helped train Inquisitor Jerec Alucard, and first taught him about the legendary Valley of the Jedi. Cronal's abilities at divination were unequaled, and the unerring precision of his visions impressed many in the Imperial heirachy. However, as it turned out, Cronal was using his Darksight ability to not merely see the future, but to influence it as well. At the same time, however, Cronal feared his own fellow Prophets were beginning to turn against him. When Cosimo Palpatine I and the Imperial Ruling Council realized that Cronal's power was such that he could not be ignored, they placed him at the head of Imperial Intelligence, and Cronal felt that it was just in time. Taking the code name Blackhole, Cronal left the Prophets for Imperial Intelligence. Imperial intelligence Lord Cronal's addition to the ranks of Imperial Intelligence was so smooth that few even realized he had joined. Cronal himself was extremely reclusive, even more so than the Emperor himself. Most of his work was carried out through droids, agents, and various fronts. In his rare appearances, Cronal presented himself through a holographic transmitter equipped with an image distorter and went by his code name, "Blackhole." Blackhole, to most, took the form of a vaguely humanoid figure anywhere from 1.8 to three meters tall, with a body resembling a shimmering starscape—or the robes of the Prophets of the Dark Side. The figure's head was entirely featureless, though eyes were sometimes visible and sometimes not, and the voice Blackhole transmitted was modulated so as to be androgynous. Only a handful knew Cronal's true form: a shrunken, withered, and frail old man. Steeped in the affairs of the dark side, Cronal had abandoned what was left of his former self. The dark side sapped at his physical and mental health, and he was forced to spend his time in a specially-designed life support chamber. As head of Intelligence, Cronal was granted virtually unlimited access and control over the Imperial HoloNet. He could take control of and appear in any holocomm unit in the Imperial Navy, or any one connected to the few civilian HoloNet nodes that still existed. He had unrivaled access to the galaxy's enormous quantities of information, and would spend his time in his sanctum meditating over the data that flowed across his screens and awaiting visions from the dark side of the Force. Cronal was given a ship of his own, the ''Imperial''-class Star Destroyer Singularity, a wing of TIE/LN starfighters, the 123rd Nightstalker Group, and his own division of shadow stormtroopers, all of which he covered in a black stygian-triprismatic polymer coating that gave them increased stealth to sensors. Only a few years into his position as head of Imperial Intelligence, Cronal became convinced that his life was in danger and relocated to the Singularity, from which he would spend the rest of his career on the move. Personality and traits Lord Cronal was a secretive, cunning, and enigmatic figure who coveted arcane lore. His intelligent, sophisticated, and at times calm demeanor masked his more sinister qualities such as cruelty, arrogance, egotism, and narcissism. He was a terrifying, monstrous individual who possessed a dark nature. Cronal's demeanor shifted from calmness to anger, depending on the situation. He was one of the Empire's most powerful dark side mages, but Cronal's heavy immersion in the dark side of the Force took a toll on him. Physically, the dark side ate away at Cronal, making him frail, shrunken, and dependent upon his life-support chamber. Because of his physical frailties, which left him past his prime in terms of physical strength, he relied on material comforts such as slippers to deal with his ailing body which was in a constant state of pain due to his advanced age and wounds, and he could not defend himself in a physical fight, instead relying on his shadow stormtroopers to deal with any threats to him. Cronal suffered mentally, too, with every vision and use of the dark side chipping away at his sanity. He became paranoid over nonexistent threats to his life, driving him further into seclusion. Cronal's tendency to mark his forces in black was another mark of his eccentricity, though it provided a tactical advantage as well. Cronal was also able to manipulate his foes so they would play directly into his hands. Considered to be vicious in temperament, he ordered his troops to lay waste to many New Republic worlds, and in doing so created wholesale slaughter and carnage in the year following the Battle of Endor. As powerful, cunning and cruel as he was, Cronal was no different from other masters of the dark side in that he still felt fear, specifically fear of Luke Skywalker and the return of the Jedi. Nevertheless, he was eager to confront Skywalker on Mindor, but was proven foolhardy when his trap failed. As a result, he was defeated, but not before having his soldiers fight to the last man. Powers and abilities Much of Blackhole's power derived from fear and paranoia. Individuals who spoke with him claimed to feel a noticeable chill, though measurements showed that the temperature of the air did not change. Though part of this fear was his physical presence, Cronal was also capable of inducing fear in others through the Force. After being made aware of the feat, he also gained the necessary knowledge as well as developed techniques that allowed him to transfer his mind into another body. In addition, his great knowledge of Sith lore allowed him to use Sith alchemy to create enhanced objects such as swords resistant to the blows of lightsabers. As a master in the ways of the dark side, Cronal could conjure Force lightning from his fingertips—a power he perfected to the point where he could fire it down at a metal surface and let it ricochet right into the intended target. His greatest strength was the ability to divine and even influence the future in an ability he called Darksight. Cronal had many other powers of the Force, including the ability to control minds, rip thoughts from the minds of others, cast Force illusions, heal himself, Force choke, and telekinesis, which he was able to use on other beings even across great distances. Cronal could also speak Bothese, Dathomiri, and Neimoidian. Appearances }} Notes and references Category:Males Category:Biologists Category:Prophets of the Dark Side Category:Scientists Category:Imperial warlords Category:Emperor's Hands Category:Imperial Intelligence Directors Category:Artists Category:Humans Category:Arkanians Category:Sephi